It's still Chilly but Nice at Elmley 31st march

Although it was nice and sunny, a strong chill wind was blowing at Elmley this weekend, so we wrapped up warm and set of for a pleasant mornings outing. As we drove through the marshes, we spotted a pretty Plover searching for insects. It was nice to see one of these about as we have not seen any for ages.

Nearby a Lapwing was also searching for food. This one was a bit more successful and happily showed off to us his prize catch before swiftly gobbling it up when the Plover wandered over to see what he had caught

Although chilly it was a lovely day and a nearby Mute Swan smiled back at us as he swam off to enjoy a slow lazy swim in the sunshine

You can see that spring is now with us, as the coots are busily making their large nests in the river. This one is now complete, and the female Coot was just checking it out for size whilst having a crafty nap before her partner came back

We saw some Redshanks here again today with quite a few Males running along the riverbanks, stopping every now and then to do a nice display of head bobbing to attract a mate.

A Loud honking overhead turned out to be a small flock of Mullard Ducks practising their synchronised flying. The honking was from the lead instructor giving the rear learner shouts of encouragement. As you can see, the learner has not quite got it right yet.

We stopped at the main car park and walked down between the bushes to see what small birds were about. Mick could hear a finch singing and walked back and forth trying to isolate it from the branches without any luck



I was more successful when I went after a little Robin. This Robin lives in the garden by the main RSPB office and normally pops over to say hello when we visit Elmley



Instead Mick checked out some of the smaller flying creatures and took this lovely shot of a busy bee sniffing out the nectar in some of the early spring flowers

Mick also wanted to try and take a shot of the Owls that can just be seen in the trees at the back of the toilet block, but I was too cold and sat in the car for a quick warm up, it was so nice and snug that I too had a crafty kip.

The Owls were a long way off and the day was very hazy but Mick managed to take this picture of one of them sitting near the Owl house that they live in. Can you see him sitting on a small branch on the right of the tree? As with all the photo's on this blog, if you click on it you will get a larger picture to see.

We hope that you enjoyed reading about our day out. More pictures can be found in our galleries at www voinapics.co.uk


Steve & Mick